THE BRITISH Medical Association has criticised the government’s latest Comprehensive Spending Review, warning that despite headline increases in NHS funding, the plans fall well short of what is needed to stabilise the health service or deliver on ministerial promises.
Dr Latifa Patel, chair of the BMA’s representative body, said the funding uplift fails to meet the demands of a growing and ageing population, an exhausted workforce, and a crumbling health estate.
While the Chancellor emphasised rising health expenditure, Dr Patel noted that the increase is still below historic averages and does not meet the investment levels required to implement the NHS workforce plan.
‘With an ageing population, crumbling buildings and huge workforce pressures, it is simply not good enough for healthcare spending to keep systems treading water,’ she said.
The government’s own modelling, she added, reportedly shows that the announced funding is insufficient to meet its waiting list reduction pledges within this Parliament.
Doctors, she said, are already shouldering the burden of staff shortages and deteriorating services.
‘While the chancellor said she is “grateful to doctors”, they cannot be expected to carry on acting on goodwill alone.’
The BMA warned that the government is once again in dispute with doctors over pay, a stand-off that continues to sap morale and drive skilled staff out of the service.
‘It will cost the country far more in the long run, in lost skills and expertise, to allow the NHS to continue driving doctors away than to pay them what they are worth,’ Dr Patel said.
She also raised doubts about the government’s plan to revitalise general practice, asking whether the proposed funding will realistically enable a new GP contract or address the situation where practices need more doctors, but trained GPs struggle to find work.
‘Our GP colleagues will now be looking carefully at whether today’s funding will allow the government to deliver the new GP contract it has committed to,’ she said.
NHS infrastructure also remains a point of concern. Although the capital budget has seen some uplift, the BMA noted that many hospitals are still operating in outdated and often unsafe facilities.
‘There’s still a gap in what’s needed to make healthcare estates and infrastructure safe and fit for purpose,’ Dr Patel said.
Outside the NHS, funding for public health and social care continues to lag.
Cuts to preventative services and chronic underinvestment in social care have placed added pressure on hospitals, increasing patient demand and deepening health inequalities.
